By Paul Nicholson
September 26 – FIFA has stepped into the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) elections for the FIFA Council and banned Qatari FA vice president Saoud Al-Mohannadi (pictured) from standing. The last minute intervention will again raise questions about the FIFA politics in play as FIFA’s new mandarins and president Gianni Infantino surround themselves with people who can be aligned to their interests.
Rumour has long been that FIFA have been ‘selecting’ their officials for the FIFA Council using Ethics rules and its Ethics departments as a blunt tool on the pathway to removing certain opinion and interests.
Al-Mohannadi, a well known figure in the AFC region, was a strong favourite to win one of the two seats on the FIFA Council that members will vote for tomorrow (Tuesday) in Goa, India. Insiders say that FIFA’s hierarchy would rather see Iranian Ali Kafashian Naeni and Singapore FA president Zainudin Nordin in those seats – they both voted for Infantino in the presidential election. The third candidate in the is China’s Zhang Jian.
Al-Mohannadi had been charged with an alleged violation of art. 13 (General rules of conduct), art. 18 (Duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting) and art. 42 (General obligation to collaborate) of the FIFA Code of Ethics. His actual offence is not detailed though there is considerable speculation as to whether any offence has actually been committed.
Ethics investigators recommended he be banned from the game for at least two years for failing “to properly cooperate and provide truthful information to the investigatory chamber in the framework of another investigation.”
But while the investigation had been completed into Al-Mohannadi the ban from standing for election has been issued before FIFA’s judiciary body has ruled. The rule of being presumed innocent until found guilty would not appear to apply in the case of this Qatari.
A brief Asian Football Confederation (AFC) press release read: “FIFA has advised the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) that, based on the report of the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, it has decided Mr Saoud A.Aziz Al-Mohannadi (Qatar) is not eligible to stand in the elections for the FIFA Council.
“This information was shared with the AFC’s Electoral Committee, which met in Goa ahead of Tuesday’s AFC Extraordinary Congress, as well as the AFC Member Associations.”
This is the second time in four months that FIFA has stepped into a confederation election and altered the way a vote looked to be going. In the CONCACAF region Caribbean Football Union president Gordon Derrick was ruled out of standing for the CONCACAF presidency (he was a clear favourite to win) by FIFA on the basis he could not take the place on the FIFA Council that goes with that position. FIFA, along with new CONCACAF president Montagliani, later supported a rival candidate against Derrick in his re-election to the CFU presidency. Montagliani is being trumpeted as one of the poster boys cleaning up FIFA and on his election in May said that “he was waiting for his marching orders” from the new FIFA president.
For the Qataris this is the second election at AFC level where they have failed to get an official to FIFA’s top table. Qatar will be the first World Cup organiser since South Africa 2010 not to have an official sitting at FIFA’s top committee.
As one prominent confederation insider commented: “You do have to feel a little sorry for Qatar as every time they step up they are shot down. You have to wonder what they have to do to be accepted as equals in FIFA’s discriminatory political world.”
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